2:15 AM,
Jul. 17, 2013

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Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid on Tuesday secured an 11th-hour truce over the confirmation of executive branch nominees, avoiding a clash that threatened to take partisan rancor to a new level in the Senate.

Kentucky's McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, and Nevada's Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, had been at odds over changing a rule that would permit senators to confirm executive branch nominees by a simple 51-vote majority rather than the current 60 votes. The change has been dubbed the "nuclear option" by some.